Brownfield Land.
Councils divide suitable brownfield sites into two lists. Part 1 means the council considers the land suitable for housing. Part 2 goes further: the council has already accepted housing in principle, leaving the detailed design and technical matters to be approved.
- Confirmation the council considers the site suitable for housing
- If it is a Part 2 site, the principle of building housing there is already approved
- An indicative capacity the authority has already accepted
- A shorter route through technical details consent
- Any relief from other designations on the same land
- Certainty on capacity — the indicative range is not a permission
- Escape from contamination or access constraints
Every local planning authority must keep and publish a register of previously developed land suitable for residential development. Part 1 lists sites that meet the criteria; Part 2 lists those the authority has chosen to grant permission in principle.
A Part 2 entry means the principle of housing development is settled — what remains is a technical details consent, which cannot revisit whether housing is acceptable, only how it is done.
The register is a sourcing tool as much as a consent route: it is a council publicly stating which sites it considers developable for housing, refreshed annually. Cross-check any entry against the other layers here — a register entry does not clear a conservation area or a flood zone.
How schemes actually fare inside this designation — approval rates, appeal survival, which authorities apply it hardest — needs the designation joined to the decision record. That join isn’t built, so those figures aren’t published here. We won’t estimate them.
Worth checking on any site. A Part 1 entry is a positive signal from the council; a Part 2 entry means housing is already accepted in principle and the application can focus on the technical details.